One of the questions I used to ask students in a Jesus class was "Do you think Jesus made mistakes learning Hebrew or mathematics or Israelite history?" This question, so I learned, was a good way to get students to think about the humanity of Jesus. It was also a good way to get some riled up. It was also a good way to get students to think about how the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ interface. These discussions led me to a firm conclusion: most Christians who affirm the deity of Christ have no idea how to think about Jesus as a human. For this reason I like what Dan Russ has done in his new book Flesh-and-Blood Jesus
Is there a rise in interest in the humanity of Jesus? What are the pros and cons of this rise? Do you think most Christians embrace the full humanitiy of Jesus?
Here you will find a sustained, gentle, accessible, and reflective attempt to explore not only that Jesus was human but what Jesus' humanity can teach us about living as humans. Most don't want to think about this topic, but Russ convinces me that it can be done -- that it can be done without doing too much speculation and can be done in a way that does not become sentimental.
His topics: Jesus as a "manger wetter" (one I had not heard of), finding our place in this world, living with mother's guilt, the problem of authority, the failures of Jesus (without sinning -- just in case you are tempted to toss down your hat and stomp on it), Jesus' need for friends, the dysfunctions of Jesus' family, Jesus and sex, good and angry, doubt and fear, how to die, scarred for life, and learning to eat between meals.
I'd recommend this book for local church Bible studies, for small groups, and for lay folks who want to begin to explore the humanity of Jesus.
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wow John, that was a plateful. You asked a lot of questions ... I don't think I have the answers ...but i will anticipate what others might contribute.
Scot, Thanks for the book recommendation! I like this topic very much because it was understand Jesus was all man helped me with my faith. Not the Jesus we find with a halo above his head and the flawless physique those depictions displayed, but a Jesus who embraced humanity.
John Meadows said (among many other interesting things):
But when Jesus limited himself forever, how did that effect the Trinity? By allowing Jesus to limit himself has the whole Trinity been limited? I understand that in God’s omniscence and foreknowledge that this was planned from the beginning and therefore, no surprise. And yet, how could God fully know, experientially until the deed was done? What kind of “agony of soul” must it have created in the eternal God-head? I know that these questions open up a pandora’s box of “openness” and who know what else? Maybe “over anthropamorphaizing” God? But questions and ideas like these keep popping up in my head.
Has the nature of the Trinity been “changed” by the Incarnation? How can that even be possible? And yet how can it not be true, if we believe that the Word became flesh, fully divine, fully human.
John,
I would have to hold to the fact that Jesus Christ is eternally the Incarnate Son of God. I'll admit that I've been thinking about this for some time and still don't have everything hashed out, but I can't make any other sense of it. If Jesus' entrance into this temporal world "changed" the Trinity, we start to have serious problems reconciling the basics of the Faith.
I want to think about it a bit more though.
Thanks for raising the questions!
I have also wondered if the addition of eternal humanity to the Trinity in the Person of Jesus the Christ brought "change" to the Trinity. How could it not? If a robust Trinitarian theology espouses 3 eternal Persons as One God and one of those Persons adds humanity (in the kenosis), is this not a substantial change?
I found this topic wonderfully touched on in the shack
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